Welling­ton: The for­eign min­is­ters of New Zealand and Aus­tralia met in New Zealand yes­ter­day for dis­cus­sions on a range of for­eign pol­icy is­sues. New Zealand For­eign Min­is­ter Mur­ray McCully and Aus­tralian coun­ter­part Julie Bishop met for the sec­ond of their twice-yearly For­eign Min­is­ters Con­sul­ta­tions.

“Our talks will fo­cus on bi­lat­eral is­sues ahead of the an­nual Aus­tralia-New Zealand Lead­ers Meet­ing early next year, as well as our on­go­ing work to­gether in the Pa­cific,” Mr McCully said in a state­ment.

“We will also dis­cuss our shared in­ter­ests in Asia and the Mid­dle East, and New Zealand’s con­tin­u­ing work on global se­cu­rity is­sues at UN Se­cu­rity Coun­cil,” Mr McCully said. Xin­hua